Slashdot Mirror

http://www.khanacademy.org/#chemistry

Sounds to me like home schooling is letting the kid down a bit. I loved my public Chemistry / physics education... Making rockets, playing with Science Olympiad, Egg Drop contests. I remember on the first day in my High School chem class, the teacher demonstrated infra-red radiation and the speed of light by taking a bowl filled with soap water, and a propane tap, and creating (and then lighting on fire) propane bubbles. He pointed out that as soon as you saw the flash, you felt the heat, and then went into a lecture about wave radiation and the light spectrum.

You can probably do that with your own kid, but there is something to be said about the benefits of learning something from someone who is passionate about the material.

FREE STUFF

UC Berkeley Webcasts (I learned quite a bit from these -- try different courses by semester. Listen to the 1st and 2nd lecture to see if it's high value. Some are better than others. I got an excellent MEMS lecture from here once, and a really good one on Byzantine history. Some (like history) are good as audio in your car. Others get better with charts.

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/

MIT OpenCourseWare (haven't tried, but hear good things)

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Khan academy (of course)
http://www.khanacademy.org/

PAID RESOURCES

Kaplan http://www.kaptest.com/
(Take something like the MCAT review if you can afford it for science/physics. They do a really good job of distilling the basics of science/biology/etc. without any nonsense. Disclaimer: I've also taught for Kaplan)

Also, don't discount old fashioned books:

The "Head First" series of books
(Try the "Dummies" books also if you're not insulted by the title)

Head First Physics

Home Schooling Curricula
Whatever you may feel about the social implications of home schooling, there are some excellent science resources which will catch you up. I will shy away from recommending specific ones for fear of inciting a flame war. I hope someone better versed in these curricula can enlighten us with recommendations.

Textbooks!
Try to get some used textbooks from a used book store, if all you want is the 101 level stuff:

Chemistry (Oxtoby-Nachtrieb) http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Modern-Chemistry-Fifth-Edition/dp/B001F39B2Y
(There are many nicely written Biology books -- see what you like)

And if you really want to enjoy chemistry:

Chemical Demonstrations, Shakhashiri

(Warning: do not try these at home until you know what you're doing)

You may also wish to check out your local Makerspace/Hackerspace. You will probably find very educated geeks who'd be more than willing to teach you stuff...

He knows what it is. He just didn't check for the specific course. Khan covers a lot more than it use to.
Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry
and
Organic Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/organic-chemistry
Thinking I just got trolled by two ACs.

He knows what it is. He just didn't check for the specific course. Khan covers a lot more than it use to.
Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry
and
Organic Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/organic-chemistry
Thinking I just got trolled by two ACs.

He knows what it is. He just didn't check for the specific course. Khan covers a lot more than it use to.
Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/chemistry
and
Organic Chem
http://www.khanacademy.org/science/organic-chemistry
Thinking I just got trolled by two ACs.

It's a work in progress, but there's a new YouTube series called Crash Course which presently covers biology and world history. They're planning to encompass other subjects in the future as well, but it just recently started. The history lessons are taught by author/nerd John Green and the biology is taught by his brother Hank Green. I suggest you check it out; it's got lots of neat graphics, simple explanations, and is easy to follow.

As mentioned in other posts, Khan Academy is also a fantastic online resource. It's not quite as spiffy as Crash Course, but covers far more subjects, and is easy to follow.

I suggest you take a look at the videos at http://www.khanacademy.org/. The guy that makes these has quite a talent for teaching and the sketches help a lot with more difficult subjects. I'm currently about half way through with the macroeconomy playlist and I find the information very easy to obtain in the format it is provided there.

Have you looked at Khan Academy? http://www.khanacademy.org/

Does Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/ count as a "social network" according to the New York City Department of Education?

-- Terry

If your 10 year old doesn't ALREADY understand the number line, you have failed. Hell, if your 6 year old doesn't understand it, you've failed.

Then I guess I failed. My seven year old son is at the top of his 2nd grade class in math. Be he was doing the number line exercise in Khan Academy about two weeks ago, and he needed some help. Once I explained the concept, and gave him a few examples, he "got it", and was able to do the exercises. But it was not intuitive. He needed an explanation.

I'd first look at KhanAcademy. They have courses on Python. See http://www.khanacademy.org/#computer-science-container Python in general is a good first language. I first learnt it with http://www.greenteapress.com/thinkpython/ But, I would highly recommend Head First books to start learning any language. I think they'd be great for an 11 year old. Head First Python http://goo.gl/tKRMu Another option that has been discussed recently as a good first language is JavaScript. It has the advantage of running in every browser and allows the ability to see nice visual feedback right away. When I was in high school I learnt a bit of Java using , which I also enjoyed because Swing gave me the ability to create GUIs right away.

Fortunately it can be replaced. For example, instead of buying a math textbook on economics, you can simply use Khan Academy for free instead. When momopoly printing creates a vacuum, something with disruptive propertys will move in. See the series on The Cupcake Factory for more info on this.

http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.khanacademy.org/finance-economics/current-economics/v/economics-of-a-cupcake-factory

As affordable alternatives move into the market and become better, the entrenched market will feel the pain. The Pay TV market is having issues with this now as Netflix and other online streaming content is disrupting the pay tv market.
http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/more-us-are-cutting-cord-pay-tv-667429

Fortunately it can be replaced. For example, instead of buying a math textbook on economics, you can simply use Khan Academy for free instead. When momopoly printing creates a vacuum, something with disruptive propertys will move in. See the series on The Cupcake Factory for more info on this.

http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.khanacademy.org/finance-economics/current-economics/v/economics-of-a-cupcake-factory

As affordable alternatives move into the market and become better, the entrenched market will feel the pain. The Pay TV market is having issues with this now as Netflix and other online streaming content is disrupting the pay tv market.
http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/more-us-are-cutting-cord-pay-tv-667429

The main thing college and university provide are motivation for people to learn and guidance / direction on what you should learn, but the majority of this is done in your own time. If you have the capacity to motivate yourself to learning these things then you may find university to be an expensive waste of time teaching you things you already know or are very capable of teaching yourself. The one advantage university provides is the certificate that many jobs in the field do not even require any more and tutors who are sometimes capable of showing you what you did wrong. It's also quite possible that the things you spend time learning in University may be obsolete by the time you graduate.

There are many great, free resources out there. Learning does not need to be expensive. Such as:
http://www.khanacademy.org/ ::maths is always handy for computer science)
http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses.php?disciplineId=106 ::complete degree level courses for free as long as you don't mind lecturers with Indian accents.

For ideas on education, look at Khan Academy : http://www.khanacademy.org/

There's an interesting story there : he made videos ( on math) , because he was tutoring family members and didn't have time to tutor each.
Their reaction was that they preffered his videos over the real life variation, because they could rewind it, didn't have to ask him, etc...

The idea of Khan Academy are the following :
- Videos are superior to large room lectures ( you can rewind easily, the teacher isn't distracted having to keep the class in order, and you only need to create them once )

- Inversion of homework/lectures : watch the videos at home, and do the homework in the classroom : the videos work better because children can rewind them, and in the classroom, the teacher now has more time to actually help the children with what they don't understand

- Traditional education discourages experimentation, but does not expect mastery . Khan Academy encourages experimentation, but expects mastery :

John Resig of jQuery fame outlines why Khan Academy decided to offer JavaScript as their first computer language. With video, of course.

From http://www.khanacademy.org/ :

• Computer Science
• Introduction to programming and computer science
• Python Lists
• For Loops in Python
• While Loops in Python
• ...

How is Javascript the first language if they are already teaching Python?

That's because you are searching for the answer to the question. Try this search:
http://www.khanacademy.org/search?page_search_query=programming

Someone who wants to learn programming doesn't search for javascript. That's like searching for "42" when you want to know the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Funny, a search for JavaScript on Khan Academy has no results!

http://www.khanacademy.org/search?page_search_query=JavaScript

What the AC said, Khan baby, Khan
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Khan Academy.

http://www.khanacademy.org/about/the-team

Well if they only counted for 1/4th of the production and the price is marked up over 100% I think an investigation is in order because i smell price gouging.

What you should investigate is this concept called price elasticity of demand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/price-elasticity-of-demand?topic=microeconomics
Once you've understood that, you also have to realize they still have to pay the wages of many staff, plus other overheads (interest on loans from banks) despite the X% drop in sales.

Before this disaster hard drive manufacturers were NOT making a lot of money from each hard drive they sell - tell me in which other industry could you buy a device with high tech, high precision, high speed moving parts with rare earth metals, that can operate nonstop, spinning at 7200 rpm for a few years with zero maintenance- no lube changes, no adjustments, with a three year warranty, for USD60 or less?

Now because of the shortage prices went up, there were fewer drives to go around, so to try to make as much money to pay for their costs (or not lose so much money) they charged higher. But charging higher means fewer customers will be willing to pay the higher prices. So the rest of the customers who REALLY NEED those drives and are the only ones willing to buy will have to pay even more. Or maybe decide they don't really need those drives that much. So the hard drive sellers and buyers will have to see who blinks first. If enough buyers blink and buy, then the price stays high.

That's how it works, you'd do the same thing too if you wanted to stay in business.

As for me, I'm playing my part by not buying yet... I might save up to buy an SSD instead ;).

First, unless you are an expert debater, recognize that others can argue this better than you can. I suggest you ask him to spend 10 minutes watching the educational video on SOPA/PIPA put together by the folks at Khan Academy. Next suggest that he browse Doc Searl's (Harvard Law School) blog post on why SOPA/PIPA is a disaster waiting to happen. You might casually ask why he thinks even the sponsors of SOPA (once educated on the issues) have withdrawn their support.

Maybe parent was modded down because it was posted anonymously, but I totally agree that Sal Khan gives a very instructive explanation of SOPA/PIPA. I'm a big fan of the Khan Academy. Here is link again, this time clickable.

You absolutely need to check out the Khan Academy. Besides a very comprehensive grade school curriculum, the site has tools to support a teacher in finding out what students know and where they are having difficulty, so they can concentrate on helping a student where they need it most. As well, the Khan Academy has opened up public tutoring to give students the special support they need from people who've volunteered to teach. This is an amazing site and an incredible resource.

I'm quite serious. These tablets are themselves from a sci-fi novel - and a not-so-very old one at that - but they are nevertheless realizable in the near term. The pace of progress is picking up quite a bit.

When my grandfather died men had not yet walked on the moon and the very idea was laughable science fiction. My mother was quite the successful medical professional and now I carry more books in my pocket each day (several thousand) than she ever read in her life. We have things now like Khan Academy and Open Courseware that offer the modern connected person with the time, ability and inclination the opportunity to learn many things that were once the secrets of a privileged few. And of course material facts like the seventh US President's policy on federal debt are but a google away, when once upon a time to discover such a thing you needed access to a good library with an encyclopedia.

These things are not just possible but inevitable. You cannot stop them no matter how much you protest because the fusion of information and communication means that knowledge will penetrate into the darkest spaces even against determined opposition. All you do in the attempt is reveal your bigotry. You think the impoverished are in some way inferior when in fact you are no better than them. It seems likely the stone of suffering has honed their wit substantially. You just have the advantage of more plentiful resources, chief among them knowledge about how to do things more easily, safely and comfortably - and not because of any personal merit but by accident of birth.

People are lazy. Show them an easy way to do something and they'll take it every time.

> The early days of TV were full of hope for its widespread educational potential, too.

Same thing: depends on how you use it. TV can be tremendously educational if you use it for that purpose, and it's only gotten more so with the plethora of cable channels and the convenience of DVRs. I just watched a bunch of excellent PBS documentaries about Roman, Egyptian, and Japanese history on YouTube.

As for iPads in the classroom, that's the equivalent of letting kids watch sit-coms in school. The Khan Academy is all about e-learning, but they do NOT recommend computers in the classroom. On the contrary, students are given e-lectures as homework assignments. (In his TED talk, Khan calls this "flipping" the classroom.) Students absorb the lecture at home, at their own pace, then the next day they go through the "work" part at school where they can interact with the teacher and other students. In this way, the teacher can focus his/her energy on individual students' needs, without the headaches of trying to lecture at a pace that doesn't either bore the smart kids or lose the "challenged" kids. Students get the benefit of "on-demand" lectures... they can pause and replay any parts they don't understand, without the embarrassment of holding up the class with a "dumb" question.

e-learning needs the proper method and programming. The method that uses short modules to teach a concept and then quizzes the student to measure comprehension is best. Is the comprehension shows a lack, the student is re-looped into a variant with another explanatory approach, and again, if needed. 3 failures can trigger human intervention to assist the student. Success can be rewarded with a choice of games for a short interval.

There are a number of these out there, such as the MIT site http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/mitx-education-initiative-1219.html and the Khan Academy http://www.khanacademy.org/, these are among the best

Apple and the schools need to re-think the lockdown on the educational ipads so that only teaching apps and reward games are allowed. Surfing to a school site with solution sources will work. Unrestricted surfing on safe sites for an interval can be one of the rewards.

Being a retired teacher, I was conscious of the fact that the unions feared computers would reduce the need for teaching staff in the same manner as in the office and industry, so they opposed it. In addition, the incremental pay scale here in Canada means that new teachers start at $35,000 or so, and ramp up to $80,000 after 10 or more years. This means you can not get engineers, chemists, pharmacists, doctors, and many other college grads going into teaching because they can start at $60,000 or more on day 1 and never look back. The ranks of teacher input is filled with arts people and immigrants of various types who can not get their higher degree recognized here. A great levelling is needed, more to start and less at the end!!!

and not one of them carries college level lectures?

<cough>Khan Academy<cough>

I'm not going to any school run by some megalomaniac who thinks quoting Melville as he dies is a good idea.

and not one of them carries college level lectures?

<cough>Khan Academy<cough>

Basically, broadcast TV is for old people now. Young people don't even buy cable anymore.

With fractional reserve banking you kind of can ... If you add all the money in bank accounts it will be a higher amount than what the central bank issued. (up 10 times higher with a reserve ratio of 10%)

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/banking-3--fractional-reserve-banking?playlist=Banking+and+Money

Anyone have a link to a basic algebra howto?

Oddly enough I do.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Not only that, over 5 billion trees are planted each year to replace those harvested to make paper. Tree farms for making paper is a appeals to famous people because it practices conversation.

Today, two trees are planted for every one taken, and now there are more trees in the USA today than there were when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. When settlers followed the Oregon Trail west from the Missouri River, along the Platte River, the first tree they saw was at "Lone Tree", now called Central City, Nebraska, which is about 60 miles North West of Lincoln. Now, a squirrel could almost travel from Lincoln to Central City via the trees alone.

All that said, perhaps the device that Sal Kahn uses to make his videos. From his FAQ:
"I use Camtasia Recorder ($200) + SmoothDraw3(Free) + a Wacom Bamboo Tablet ($80) on a PC. I used to use ScreenVideoRecorder($20) and Microsoft Paint (Free)."

Here is SmoothDraw3 in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJAhfaZnUA

He writes text and equations and draws graphs with ease. Later, the graphic image file could be submitted to an OCR engine to extract the text.

You seem to be confused about basic math, and in particular the difference between positive numbers and negative numbers. Maybe Kahn can help. http://www.khanacademy.org/exercises?exid=number_line.

So does anyone have the answers to the puzzles posted on here?

You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

        Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?

        You have five pirates, ranked from 5 to 1 in descending order. The top pirate has the right to propose how 100 gold coins should be divided among them. But the others get to vote on his plan, and if fewer than half agree with him, he gets killed. How should he allocate the gold in order to maximize his share but live to enjoy it? (Hint: One pirate ends up with 98 percent of the gold.)

        Distance is defined like this : If a[i], b[j] and c[k] are three elements then distance=max(abs(a[i]-b[j]),abs(a[i]-c[k]),abs(b[j]-c[k]))” Please give a solution in O(n) time complexity

SPOILER ALERT

For Problem #2, I would say that all 100 men get killed. I am basing it on the Khan Academy explanation of the Blue Forehead problem

For Problem #3, It seems like the optimal answer is for Pirate #5 to give himself 98 coins, Pirate #4 one coin, and Pirate #2 one coin. (Pirate #1 knows that he can get all the coins if it ever gets down to two pirates. So he'll vote down every proposal. And Pirate #3 knows that he can get 100 coins, if it ever gets down to three pirates (because at that point, pirate #2 will vote for pretty much anything, lest he die!) And Pirate #4 knows that if it ever gets down to four pirates left, he will need to satisfy two out of three, and there's no way he'll be able to do that (since #1 and #3 won't vote his way no matter what). So he'll take whatever he can get. So no sense in giving any to pirates 1 or 3, because you'll never get their vote.

So by giving pirates 2 and 4 one coin each, you are buying their votes.

In the traditional classroom a teacher gives a long lecture on stuff with minimal interaction. But nowadays it's actually a waste of time for teachers to do what can be already done with videos: http://www.khanacademy.org/

So teachers should focus on doing what the videos can't. Seems In some schools, the students watch the lectures/videos at home, then come to school, do stuff and get help from the teacher.

I am all for implementing things that work. Given that the Khan academy ( http://www.khanacademy.org/ ) is so successful, i cant see why most college classes cant be taught online partially. if the lectures can be pulled out of the classes, much more time can be spent on working out problems and bigger things like open ended questions, debate.

or maybe i just have a hard on for Khan academy.

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011--from-ted-com?playlist=Khan+Academy-Related+Talks+and+Interviews

I am all for implementing things that work. Given that the Khan academy ( http://www.khanacademy.org/ ) is so successful, i cant see why most college classes cant be taught online partially. if the lectures can be pulled out of the classes, much more time can be spent on working out problems and bigger things like open ended questions, debate.

or maybe i just have a hard on for Khan academy.

http://www.khanacademy.org/video/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011--from-ted-com?playlist=Khan+Academy-Related+Talks+and+Interviews

I'm not sure why I would consider anything in your post true. First off, blaming government loans for the housing bubble? Looks like you're the one who needs to look closer at the Khan Academy:
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/the-housing-price-conundrum?playlist=Credit%20Crisis (an excellent series)
More importantly, you blame the rising cost of education on the government making cheap loans available. The cost of education has risen faster than education for at least the past fifteen years, yet federal aid has dropped. The facts don't seem to back up your claim at all.

Kahn Academy video on the low interest loans and the spike in price due to increased demand is covered in this Kahn Academy video. The Academy has a full section on the Credit Crisis. Student loans are next.
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/the-housing-price-conundrum?playlist=Credit%20Crisis

Only open for one class and one quarter makes this look like a publicity stunt.. Lots of free advertising for Stanford. For some real online free classes, look into Kahn. http://www.khanacademy.org/

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.ted.com/

Standford isn't first to this game, but I still applaud them.

web browser + khan academy

I teach physics at a community college. The Wired article made me curious to see how good the Khan videos were. I went to the Khan Academy web site and viewed this one on Newton's law of gravity. He starts off with some kind of interesting, intellectually stimulating stuff about how gravity is ultimately not something we can explain. (He makes one error, but it's not crucial, and it's prefaced with a modest warning that he's not an expert.) Then he writes down Newton's law of gravity without saying anything about where it comes from, how we know it's true, or whether it's been tested by experiment. Next he spends 6 or 7 minutes, almost the entire video, solving a plug-in problem. After that he has a follow-up lecture in which he solves a problem using ratios.

I have not watched this, or any other of his videos, but to be fair, at least from what the wired article says, khan mostly aims at school- or high school-level topics, so it is no surpise that his physics seems basic to someone teaching physics at college level. From TFA:

Khan’s site is unique in that it’s ruthlessly practical: It’s aimed at helping people master the basics, the humble bread-and-butter equations they encounter in elementary and high school.

So the practical, drilling-based approach is deliberate, and I think it has a place in an education, though it also needs to be complemented with other approaches that go more in depth in the "why" rather than just the how: e.g., the difference between a calculus class where you learn to crunch integrals and differential equations and a mathematical analysis class where you (additionally, it is to be hoped) learn to understand the theory.

I teach physics at a community college. The Wired article made me curious to see how good the Khan videos were. I went to the Khan Academy web site and viewed this one on Newton's law of gravity. He starts off with some kind of interesting, intellectually stimulating stuff about how gravity is ultimately not something we can explain. (He makes one error, but it's not crucial, and it's prefaced with a modest warning that he's not an expert.) Then he writes down Newton's law of gravity without saying anything about where it comes from, how we know it's true, or whether it's been tested by experiment. Next he spends 6 or 7 minutes, almost the entire video, solving a plug-in problem. After that he has a follow-up lecture in which he solves a problem using ratios.

IMO this video might be fine as a supplement for a student who has poor problem-solving skills and needs to see some very explicit step-by-step remedial instruction in how to solve a plug-in problem, but it would be disastrous for a student to get her first introduction to gravity from this lecture. The lecture just presents a formula and plugs in numbers. There is almost no intellectual content there, just some calculations being cranked out using a formula that pops up mysteriously out of nowhere.

A more fundamental issue is that there's a ton of educational research that shows that in physics, traditional lecturing, no matter how competently done, produces extremely poor conceptual understanding. A bunch of the classic papers are by R.R. Hake. The only techniques that lead to better success are techniques that de-emphasize lecturing to a class that sits and passively listens. Since the Khan lectures are still lectures, they are going to have the same shortcomings as any lectures.

I'm glad to see that this is finally happening. A "good" lecture on a subject needs to only be done once. It seem like a waste repeating the same thing year after year.

The problem here is that you're assuming that instruction must consist of a teacher lecturing while students sit silently in their seats. Even if one isn't a true believer in nontraditional techniques, there's a problem when students can't even ask a question.

You do see a lot of big state schools these days taking videos of lectures given in gigantic halls with 300 seats. Students can watch the videos in their jammies sitting in their dorm rooms. This is pathetic. These schools have simply given up on their educational mission for these large freshman lecture classes. The answer isn't to make the 300-student lecture more efficient, it's to admit that the 300-student lecture is a travesty.

"So what do K-12 students without broadband at home do? Go to a public library every day?"

No, teachers can download the content for those without internet access:

http://www.khanacademy.org/downloads

How can Wired write an entire article, and slashdot write a summary, all about a website, and nobody includes the link to Kahn Academy!?? Geesh

"if only someone would apply this type of random reward & leveling system to education, we could work wonders"

Khan Academy does a pretty good job with this. And while cognitive fun is more about cognitive improvement than education, it's pretty addictive.

Salman Khan may yet do one. He did one for the Hubble image that turned up hundreds of galaxies, where we had never seen anything before.

MIT has OpenCourseWare.

http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Then there is the Khan Academy.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

And Wikipedia, and One Laptop Per Child. People are already working to put all human knowledge online where it can be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the globe.

It depends where you are, but I think degrees mean less when college kids with startups become billionaires. Come up with a good product. Market it well. That is what matters.